Will.i.am, from the musical group Black Eyed Peas, told the U.K.'s The Sun that he and TV talent show rival Cowell met recently in Los Angeles to hash out the scheme.

Such an effort would build on previous endeavors by the tech-minded Will.i.am, named Intel's creative director for innovation last year. The musician told The Sun: "Singing and performance create a couple of jobs. But this will create lots."

As for Cowell, he might lean toward finding a fresh new tech mogul focused on network security. After all, his X Factor show's entrant database got hacked last year.

Will.i.am made public the plans for X Factor for Tech (or whatever the show would be called), but nothing firm has been announced in terms of such a show making it to TV at any particular point.

It's also unclear whether the show might have a judging format that could be involve big-name tech industry venture capitalists, but that might seem likely. What's less likely is that the show would target enterprise IT startups, though at least one industry watcher thinks enterprise IT upstarts are overdue for funding.

Bob Brown tracks network research in his Alpha Doggs blog and Facebook page, as well on Twitter and Google +.

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